Fight Against Crime South Africa

Crime Information and Communication Hub

The most violent provinces in South Africa

The South African Police Service has released its most up-to-date set of crime statistics, covering the last three quarters of 2016.

Crime stats releases in South Africa are often criticised for being out of date by the time the annual report is released to the public.

For example, the 2016 crime stats released by the SAPS in September 2016 covered crime activity between March 2015 and March 2016 – 6 months old by the time the data is published.

In a bid to correct this, the SAPS said that it would change its publication schedule, and try to release the data quarterly – giving a better indication of crime activity trends in the country.

While Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal consistently record the highest numbers of reported murders in the country, given their large populations, this is not a surprise.

When calculated as a rate per 100,000 population, however, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape are often at odds with each other to claim the top ‘dishonour’ of being the most violent provinces in the country.

With the latest crime stats release, this trend has not changed,with the gap between the two provinces narrowing.

In the latest release, covering April 2016 to December 2016, the Eastern Cape’s murder rate was 40.1 per 100,000 people, compared to the Western Cape’s 39.4 per 100,000 – a narrow 0.7 point lead.

In the comparative data – covering April 2015 to December 2015 – the Eastern Cape also had the highest murder rate at 41.7 murders per 100,000 people, compared to the Western Cape’s 39.7 per 100,000 people.